Republican Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee has slammed a far-left transgender group he said is trying to portray the Nashville school killer as a “martyr.”
After the shooting at The Covenant School, which left three children and three adults dead, the radical Trans Resistance Network issued a statement, calling it a double tragedy for the victims and their families, as well as for the transgender shooter, the 28-year-old Audrey Hale, named.
“Any attempt to turn a mass murderer into a martyr is beyond disturbing,” Ogles, who represents the community where the shooting took place, told Fox News Digital. “The idea of anyone trying to justify this atrocity sickens me to the core.
“March 27, 2023 was not a double tragedy as this radical group wrote,” Ogles said. “It was a targeted attack on children attending a Christian school by a hateful local terrorist.
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A radical transgender group said the Nashville transgender shooter “had found no other effective way to be seen” than killing six people at a private Presbyterian school. (Metro Nashville Police Department)
Ogles’ comments come after the Trans Resistance Network broke its promise not to engage publicly with the news media to release a statement arguing that the shootings were two tragedies and that Hale “had no other effective option.” to be seen”.
“The first tragedy today is the loss of three children and adults,” the group said in its statement. “We extend our deepest sympathy and sincere prayers to the families who are dealing with the loss of loved ones. There is nothing we can offer to comfort the pain or ease the sorrow. We will mourn with you.”
“The second and more complex tragedy is Aiden [the shooter’s preferred name] or Aubrey Hale, who felt he had no effective way to be seen other than to strike by taking the lives of others and thus himself.
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The group added that they “do not claim to know the person or have access to their inner thoughts and feelings,” but they “know that life for transgender people is very difficult and in the past few months it has been through a virtual one avalanche of anti-trans legislation and public calls by right-wing figures and political figures for nothing less than the genocidal eradication of trans people from society.”
Rep. Elect Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., right, and Rep. Barry Moore, R-Ala., arrive at the Capitol Visitor Center for the Republican leadership election in the House of Representatives on November 15, 2022. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
“Many transgender people struggle with anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts and PTSD caused by the almost constant drumbeat of anti-trans hatred, lack of acceptance from family members and certain religious institutions, denial of our existence and calls for defusing. Transition and forced conversion,” the group claimed.
He later added that “hatred has consequences.”
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According to its website, TRN is “a collective of experienced organizers, committed allies and concerned groups coming together for the long-term survival and well-being of people of different genders in more extreme environments.”
Nashville police on Monday identified the six people killed in the shooting as Evelyn Dieckhaus, 9, William Kinney and Hallie Scruggs, along with Mike Hill, 61, Cynthia Peak, 61, and Katherine Koonce, 60.
Covenant School gunner Audrey Hale unlocks the doors of the church office once inside the school building. (Twitter @MNPDNashville)
Koonce was the principal, Peak was a substitute teacher, and Hill was a janitor.
Hale, a former Covenant School student, entered the compound Monday with two “assault rifles” and a handgun and began shooting, police said.
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Hale used hand-drawn maps with detailed entry points found at her Nashville home.
The gunman was killed by Metropolitan Nashville police officers Rex Engelbert and Michael Collazo.
Fox News Digital’s Chris Pandolfo contributed coverage.
Source : www.foxnews.com